Ethan Kanfer
By Ethan Kanfer
-
Culture Speakeasy Jews
In Their Own Image: New York Jews in Jazz Age Popular Culture By Ted Merwin Rutgers University Press, 240 pages, $23.95 With its irresistible blend of innocence and envelope-pushing, the Jazz Age — an era of bootleggers, flappers and silent-movie stars — still holds a mythical fascination for today’s audiences. To this end, Ted Merwin,…
-
Culture Notes From the Edge
On Broadway, late summer is known as the off-season. But in the downtown theater world, life begins in August. Every year at this time, the kaleidoscopic burst of creativity known as the New York International Fringe Festival lights up Lower Manhattan. Now in its 10th year, North America’s largest multi-arts festival hosts hundreds of performances…
-
Culture The Man Who Brought the Melting Pot to the Stage
From the Ghetto to the Melting Pot: Israel Zangwill’s Jewish Plays By Israel Zangwill Edited by Edna Nahshon Wayne State University Press 363 pages, $34.95. * * *| Long before “diversity” became a cultural buzzword, playwright and novelist Israel Zangwill coined a phrase that would become an indelible part of America’s language of self-description. The…
-
Culture From the Stage To the Page
Nine Contemporary Jewish Plays Edited by Ellen Schiff and Michael Posnick Foreword by Theodore Bikel University of Texas Press, 587 pages, $24.95. * * *| Published plays — especially those in anthologies — tend to be dismissed by the casual browser as specialty items, of interest only to students of theater history or to actors…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Rep. Max Miller says driver called him a ‘dirty Jew’ and threatened to kill his family. A local doctor turned himself in.
- 2
News An Alabama millionaire offered Jews $50,000 to move to his town. 16 years later, what’s left?
- 3
News As Israel attacks, what is life like for Jews in Iran?
- 4
Culture Why is Israel’s attack on Iran called ‘Rising Lion’ — and what does the Bible have to do with it?
In Case You Missed It
-
Food In gentrified Manhattan, one Jewish luncheonette strives to keep the faith (except for the bacon part)
-
Opinion Think speaking out against Trump won’t help? A 1943 protest in Nazi Germany says you’re wrong.
-
Culture How a Jewish reporter like me got addicted to Christian media
-
Opinion Israeli leaders are using Holocaust comparisons to justify attacks on Iran. Is that kosher?
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
